Interior walls of buildings are usually constructed using a number of wallboard panels such as gypsum boards or drywall. These boards are secured to frame members of the building using screws and/or nails, and are aligned adjacent to each other to form a wall surface. A number of products such as seam fillers and textures enable the achievement of a continuous wall surface that is suitable for finishing to the final customer's desired specifications. One such example is a composition commonly known as joint or ready mix compound is used to fill seams between adjacent panels and to conceal the fasteners to create a generally smooth wall surface free of interruptions, defects, and other imperfections. This compound is a generally smooth composition that can be easily applied in a number of layers and subsequently sanded to create a flat, uniform surface. A particular type of joint compound known as ready mix joint compound can reduce the preparation time required prior to beginning the process of applying the mixture to the wall surface by only requiring a brief mixing period to bring the material into uniformity. Conversely, traditional wall compound requires materials such as water to be added to a dry, bagged formula, which can take substantially more time to mix and prepare. Another example in this same family of products is a ready mix texturing compound that is also applied in the first stages of the wall building process to prepare the wall for its final form. For the purpose of clarity, these products will be referred to as ready mix compounds.
In existing systems and processes used to manufacture ready mix joint compound, bulk materials are shipped and stored at manufacturing facilities in large quantities. Batch processing is then utilized and generally includes mixing dry ingredients together in an operation such as a hopper or mixer, then combining the dry and wet ingredients in another separate mixer. The combined ingredients are then typically mixed to form a homogenous composition which is transferred into any number of holding tanks. This composition is then metered into desired packaging and/or holding containers for subsequent distribution. At each step of the manufacturing process, ingredients may need time to be sufficiently mixed before proceeding to subsequent steps. In some examples, it may be necessary to temporarily transport portions of the compound to a holding container prior to continuing the process. Upon producing a batch of compound, subsequent cycles can proceed to produce additional batches of blended material.
In these processes, quantities of bulk materials are fed into hopper systems in batches, which can result in substantial downtime when obtaining or storing additional materials. Each stage of the mixing process is time-consuming and can result in significant manufacturing downtime and/or delay. These manufacturing systems are oftentimes complex and physically sizable, thus requiring large and costly facilities having a high energy consumption. In current systems, one approach to overcoming production downtime involves using a number of separate process lines which operate in parallel such that one of the two or more processes is constantly in operation. Utilizing such a system may result in a “quasi-continuous” manufacturing process, but such a process necessitates additional manufacturing equipment and facility size. Further still, due to ingredient properties and/or quantities used to form the compound, individual batches of the compound may have varying compositions and thus may undesirably perform differently when used. These processes usually require an entire batch of the product to be completed prior to testing its properties.